Even though Li Qing had a lifespan of a hundred lifetimes ahead of him and no need to rush his quest for immortality, there was no denying he was happy in this moment.
Wei Yang's corpse held a spiritual root in its body; the opportunity to step into the Xiantian realm and seek immortality was right before his eyes.
"Forgive me."
Li Qing sent a strand of internal energy into Wei Yang's body, starting with the tongue.
Nothing unusual there. Clearly, Wei Yang had never learned the refinement method and never truly gained a false spiritual root.
His internal energy swept through the whole body, until he finally found something strange beside a bone under the left shoulder and armpit.
He drew his internal energy back, and a lotus seed burst out of the flesh, landing in his hand.
The seed glowed all over, carrying a faint aura that matched Li Qing's own.
"So this is a spiritual root body?"
He was curious. The original spiritual root must have been a rare lotus, which bore this seed. The seed was called the "spiritual root body," while the rare lotus itself was the true spiritual root.
Once the seed left, Wei Yang's corpse decayed rapidly, giving off a foul stench.
Wei Yang had been steady-minded indeed, hiding the lotus seed deep in his muscle took immense willpower.
Li Qing quickly stored the seed away.
To keep the White Lotus Sect from one day tracking this place down and disturbing the siblings' rest, he moved the cypress coffin to a new burial site. Only he knew where it was.
Once everything was settled, Li Qing returned to his residence in the capital, removed his disguise, and made it safely back to the palace.
With the day he'd picked being so auspicious, if the White Lotus Sect still managed to catch him, it really would be a curse.
"Little Li, you're back. Her Majesty the Empress is looking for you."
The moment Li Qing stepped into the Cold Palace, Gong Yue called out to him.
"Got it," Li Qing nodded.
Half a year ago, Empress Yan had been cast into the Cold Palace by Emperor Jianwu, who then elevated Princess Yueling to the position of empress.
Still, though stripped of her title, Empress Yan's son remained the crown prince, so she had not lost all her influence.
She had married Jianwu back when he was still the Prince of Wu, and she still had many connections in the court.
The Cold Palace now had its full complement of twelve eunuchs. After Gong Yue and Zheng Chun, Li Qing ranked third. The number of concubines had also grown, bringing back a measure of the bustle from the old days.
Every few days, one of them would go mad, take her own life, or waste away in despair.
The imperial family had always been ruthless.
Even the eunuchs' meals in the Cold Palace were gradually improving.
Li Qing made his way to the Dingyou side wing, once occupied by the former Noble Consort li, where he was granted an audience with the Empress.
"Officiant Li, were you out of the palace today?" Empress Yan asked lightly, still working on her embroidery.
Li Qing's role as an imperial palace elite was no secret to her.
"Nothing to do, so I took a stroll outside the city. Ended up seeing the army in action," he replied.
"And?" The Empress set down her embroidery and looked at him.
"A battle-hardened force. Every attack succeeds, every fight is a victory," Li Qing said truthfully. The Western Conquest Army he had seen was indeed a force of a thousand victories, built not only on the past decade of campaigning, but also on the deep foundation left from the Taikang reign.
"And the common people?" she pressed.
"They… live in peace…" Li Qing started to say "live in peace and prosperity," but couldn't bring himself to. In the end, he only said, "They're getting by. They can live."
"Wow, what a way to live."
Empress Yan gave a faint laugh. "Officiant Li, do you know that under the late emperor's rule, the people lived in peace, and every household had blessings to spare? Even when the White Lotus Sect wanted to stir up trouble, they had to send their Saintess into the palace first to spark a court upheaval. I've heard that over in Yongzhou, White Lotus disciples can rally crowds with a single call, killing officials, storming government offices. One incident after another."
"What is it you want to say, Your Majesty?" Li Qing asked.
"I want Grandmaster Rong Ku to grant me an audience," the Empress said in a low voice.
Li Qing understood her meaning. She wanted to persuade Grandmaster Rong Ku to act, so that Emperor Jianwu would spend the rest of his life as a retired ruler with no say in state affairs.
"By the founding emperor's decree, the Imperial Palace Elite protects only the sovereign's safety and doesn't meddle in other matters," Li Qing said, shaking his head.
The Empress countered, "The founding emperor also decreed that his descendants must never pursue the empty, delusional path of immortality. Yet His Majesty now stirs up war and chaos in search of the Dao. That's already breaking the founder's law."
Li Qing shook his head again. "Grandmaster Rong Ku is old and uninterested in worldly affairs. He won't agree."
"And you?" the Empress pressed, fixing her gaze on him. "From what I know, you're the youngest peak master of the Eight Vessels in the palace, with a bright future ahead."
"I'm just a minor eunuch in the Cold Palace," Li Qing said, and fell silent.
The Empress gave another quiet laugh. "Another one with no desires, like water flowing to the lowest place. You've truly become the image of Eunuch Ruoshui. Like father, like son. If I had another eunuch deliver my message, would you allow it?"
Li Qing stayed silent.
The Empress was a virtuous consort, but her constant opposition to the wars had made her fall from Jianwu's favor.
But to Li Qing, a century of dynastic power was nothing more than a passing scene. He had no interest in getting involved.
There's no such thing as a people who are forever safe and well.
If the common folk aren't suffering, then who is?
Whatever Empress Yan intended, Li Qing neither agreed to it nor refused.
That very night, a Cold Palace eunuch named Sun Su was summoned to the Dingyou side wing. He left the Cold Palace afterward, and his bones were never found.
…
Half a month later, Li Qing had everything prepared and began refining the false spiritual root.
With his current cultivation, no one in the Cold Palace could detect anything unusual about his cultivation.
To refine a false spiritual root, he first had to master the Blood Spirit. And he had already learned it over the past three years.
The Blood Spirit was a blood-guiding technique. Each day, he would draw a drop of blood from the tip of his tongue and merge it into the lotus seed. This was done for seven times seven days. Forty-nine days in total. Each day, the lotus seed was nourished with his blood, until it became inseparable from his own body.
On the final day, the seed would enter the base of his tongue through the spot where the blood flowed, fusing with it and living as one.
Spiritual roots were divided into the five elements. The lotus was yin in nature, belonging to water.
Once he used the lotus seed to forge a false spiritual root, it would be a water-type false spiritual root.
And it was perfect. Li Qing cultivated the Seven Forms of Flowing Water, and all his internal energy was of the water element, matching the lotus seed completely.
"If I succeed, then on the path to immortality, my way will likely lie in water," Li Qing realized.
Forty-nine days passed in the blink of an eye.
That night, Li Qing completed the nourishing of the lotus seed and placed it in his mouth.
The seed slid past the tip of his tongue; his physique came to life, transforming into a spiritual root. The false spiritual root was now fully refined.
In that moment, Li Qing could finally sense the faint, drifting spiritual qi that pervaded heaven and earth.
Setting his posture, he began his breakthrough to the Xiantian realm.
He drew in a deep breath of that qi, letting it flow through the tip of his tongue and into his body. The bottleneck that had blocked him for years shattered.
The spiritual qi entered his body, merged with his internal energy, and blended into one.
His internal energy fused with the qi, transforming into true qi. Higher than internal energy, yet not as refined as mana.
Everything happened naturally, without the slightest obstacle.
The Martial Path was essentially the Immortal Path. For those with a spiritual root, once they reached the peak of the Eight Vessels, breaking through to the Xiantian realm came without hindrance. The so-called "xiantian bottleneck" was only an obstacle for those without a spiritual root.
"With a breath of true qi, I shed the mortal shell, leave the martial path, and step into the immortal path."
After forty-six years on the path, Li Qing had finally reached the Xiantian realm.
He took a single leap, crossing two Cold Palace chambers in one bound like a ghost.
No wonder they call it the Xiantian realm. I haven't even used any refined movement techniques, yet I can move at this speed.
He pointed a finger, and true qi shot from his fingertip. In the air, it seemed to form an invisible sword that pierced straight through a stone slab.
This kind of power… truly impressive…
Stamping a foot on the ground, Li Qing let his true qi burst outward, forming a protective barrier around him.
With this barrier, even two or three peak Eight Vessels peak masters wouldn't be able to break my defense…
A Xiantian grandmaster was meant to crush those of lower realms, though that didn't make one invincible.
Power always had its limits. A Xiantian grandmaster's true qi had to be replenished by breathing in spiritual qi, and the speed of recovery depended on the quality of the spiritual root. Recovery was slow, making drawn-out battles impractical.
And when faced with a dense rain of powerful bows and heavy crossbows, even a Xiantian grandmaster couldn't hold out.
Of course, if a Xiantian grandmaster chose to avoid battle altogether, no army formation could pin them down.